Rent Dead of Winter (1987)

Enjoyable thriller - Dead of Winter review by TB

Over the years I have thought about this film, having seen it once at the cinema and never on TV. It is not a slasher movie, as I've heard it described, but a dark thriller that keeps the viewer guessing. Roddy McDowall is quite creepy in a gentlemanly way and Mary Steenbergen is excellent in the main role and one hopes it will end well for her, especially as her husband sets off rather belatedly, to find her. This film is best watched on a cold, wintry night. Highly recommended.

Double Trouble - Dead of Winter review by Steve

Sumptuous indulgence for connoisseurs of studio era gaslight melodrama; this is a luxurious remake of Joseph H. Lewis' low budget woman-in-peril thriller My Name is Julia Ross (1945) updated to the '80s and clearly revised by aficionados. So there are many familiar motifs for genre buffs to pick up on...

Like the glass of milk from Suspicion (1941). And all those mousetraps! Plus the script tightens up the premise quite well. Mary Steenburgen is an out of work actor cast in the real life psychodrama of a mad medic who forces her to stand in for a lookalike dead patient until a blackmail scheme pays off.

The remake- as usual- is much longer, and credibility gets lost in a sequence of climaxes meant to crank up the horror. Steenburgen plays three roles so it's a showreel for her. As the kidnap victim she suffers even better than Nina Foch in the original. Jan Rubes is crazy enough as the evil manipulator.

The original is a cult classic and this made hardly any impact. But it's a quality production with a standout music score. The old dark house lacks noir atmospherics, but the hostile winter weather is an ok substitute. While it's not as good as Lewis' programmer this is a remake which shows it some real love.